Summary

The federal budget deficit was close to $240 billion for the first two months of fiscal year 2012, more than $50 billion below the deficit recorded through November of last year, CBO estimates. Much of that difference occurred because roughly $30 billion in payments that would
ordinarily have been made on October 1, 2011 (that is, in fiscal year 2012), were made instead in September (that is, in fiscal year 2011) because October 1 fell on a weekend. Without those shifts in the timing of payments, the decline in the deficit for the two-month period would
have been about $20 billion.